UMA CHAKRAVARTI, AUTHOR OF EVERYDAY LIVES, EVERYDAY HISTORIES: BEYOND THE KINGS AND BRAHMANAS OF 'ANCIENT' INDIA AND PANDITA RAMABAI: A LIFE AND A TIMEĪrundhati Roy’s The Doctor and the Saint works both at an emotive and an argumentative level. Roy’s essay has the sharp political thrust one has come to expect from her. Roy breathes new life into Ambedkar’s anti-caste utopia, and says that without a Dalit revolution, India will continue to be hobbled by systemic inequality.įor the 1930s, Annihilation of Caste was a case of marvellous writing with conceptual clarity and political understanding- something the world should know about. She tracks Ambedkar’s emergence as a major political figure in the national movement, and shows how his scholarship and intelligence illuminated a political struggle beset by sectarianism and obscurantism.

Roy takes us to the beginning of Gandhi’s political career in South Africa, where his views on race, caste and imperialism were shaped. The hatchet was never buried.Īrundhati Roy introduces this extensively annotated edition of Annihilation of Caste in “The Doctor and the Saint”, examining the persistence of caste in modern India, and how the conflict between Ambedkar and Gandhi continues to resonate. The world’s best-known Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi, responded publicly to the provocation. Du Bois-offers a scholarly critique of Hindu scriptures, scriptures that sanction a rigidly hierarchical and iniquitous social system. Written in 1936, it is an audacious denunciation of Hinduism and its caste system. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste is one of the most important, yet neglected, works of political writing from India. Introduced by Arundhati Roy, edited and annotated by S.

Dr br ambedkar annihilation of caste